Timekeeping

If I'm honest, I've never been good at timekeeping. I was fine when at school, held down my Saturday jobs and even did well in my first couple of years at university. I think the descent to current levels began when I embarked on my intercalated psychology degree. I went from having 5 full days, starting at 9am and finishing at 5pm to being a free spirit. Days were usually lax, perhaps one or two lectures and the occasional tutorial. I was busying myself reading and writing essays and projects and was self directed. Then gradually my standards slipped and I found myself sneaking in the back door for lectures, asking for extensions for essays and generally kicking back and relaxing. Nowadays, I sometimes find that rather than having "get up and go" I've got "get up and sit back down again"!!! Obviously I didn't do too badly, as timekeeping has never been an issue at work, but I do find that I get behind in projects as I over commit myself - for instance, at the moment I have about 5 projects on my knitting needles/crochet hooks and plans for at least 10 more!

Once you add an autistic child into the equation, you can forget about ever being on time. Usually by the time I've checked through the list of essentials we need for the day (nappies - check, water - check, Little Life rucksack - check, change of clothes - check, change of clothes for ME - check, snacks - check, money - check, wipes - check, RADAR key - check, fruit - check, sense of humour - check) James has got undressed, eaten the snacks, needs a nappy change and I'm close to despair! So getting anywhere on time with him in tow is pretty unusual. I do try my best, and have set my car's clock to run 5 minutes fast (though I probably compensate for that in my head so it's not that helpful overall). Despite my efforts, I usually fail, but occasionally I surprise everyone, including myself. Today we surpassed ourselves - we managed to arrive at a birthday party 24 hours EARLY!!! Do you think we'll make it on time tomorrow?